Chapter 1: Introduction
To analyse securities creditably, one needs to understand security forms, corporate accounting, the basic elements that make for the success and failure of various kinds of businesses, the general workings of the economy and the characteristics of security markets.
One must be able to dig for facts, to evaluate them critically, and to apply his conclusions with good judgment and a fair amount of imagination.
One must be able to resist human nature itself sufficiently to mistrust his own feelings when they are part of mass psychology.
One must have courage commensurate with his own competence.
The array of securities
Civil obligations eg. Singapore government securities
-Government bonds and Treasury bills(T-bills)
Corporate Securities- Unlisted private companies
Preferred and Common Stocks
Economic background
The soundness of a security purchase is determined by future developments and not by past history or statistics.
But the future cannot be analysed; we can seek only to participate intelligently and to prepare for it prudently.
Past performance as a foundation- Long experience tells us that investment anticipations cannot be sound or dependable unless they are closely related to past performance.
5 matters that concern the investor
General price level- The long-term trend would be inflationary with rising oil prices and basic necessities . Common stocks are by no means an ideal protection or 'hedge' against inflation, but they do more for the investor on this point than either bonds or cash.
Interest rates- The price history of bonds is the reverse of the course of interest rates.
Business conditions and profits
Dividends- The pattern of corporate dividends follows closely with earnings. They also exert a prime influence on the status of individual common-stock issues.
Security prices- A promise of excellent gains when purchases are made in depressed markets and a warning of permanent loss if the investor buys when bullish sentiment is at its strongest.
To analyse securities creditably, one needs to understand security forms, corporate accounting, the basic elements that make for the success and failure of various kinds of businesses, the general workings of the economy and the characteristics of security markets.
One must be able to dig for facts, to evaluate them critically, and to apply his conclusions with good judgment and a fair amount of imagination.
One must be able to resist human nature itself sufficiently to mistrust his own feelings when they are part of mass psychology.
One must have courage commensurate with his own competence.
The array of securities
Civil obligations eg. Singapore government securities
-Government bonds and Treasury bills(T-bills)
Corporate Securities- Unlisted private companies
Preferred and Common Stocks
Economic background
The soundness of a security purchase is determined by future developments and not by past history or statistics.
But the future cannot be analysed; we can seek only to participate intelligently and to prepare for it prudently.
Past performance as a foundation- Long experience tells us that investment anticipations cannot be sound or dependable unless they are closely related to past performance.
5 matters that concern the investor
General price level- The long-term trend would be inflationary with rising oil prices and basic necessities . Common stocks are by no means an ideal protection or 'hedge' against inflation, but they do more for the investor on this point than either bonds or cash.
Interest rates- The price history of bonds is the reverse of the course of interest rates.
Business conditions and profits
Dividends- The pattern of corporate dividends follows closely with earnings. They also exert a prime influence on the status of individual common-stock issues.
Security prices- A promise of excellent gains when purchases are made in depressed markets and a warning of permanent loss if the investor buys when bullish sentiment is at its strongest.
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